painting (oil): ["River Scene with Boats and Figures"]

Outside the walls of a small riverside town, a procession of people, some with packaged goods, moves along the quay towards the boats in the right middle ground of the painting. Boats can be seen under sail in the distance. A favourite motif of Molenaer's scenes were near derelict, timber-boarded houses and outside such a house in the right foreground, a woman can be seen doing her washing. A man brings another basket of laundry from the house. A small boat is being pulled in to moor by a man in a green jacket. At centre left, four youths bathe naked at the edge of the river. Behind them is a boat carrying a group of more well-to-do passengers, including a man in a red cloak. In the foreground on the left some men unload goods from a moored boat. On the bank a woman, brightly illuminated by sunlight, can be seen going through a doorway. A man watches the scene from a parapet above. At the extreme left of the composition a man is cleaning out lobster pots. Beside him a peasant pours water into a trough where a large pig is lolled on its side. Virag 15/12/2004, Between 1984 and 1985, a research assistant, Dr. Brendan Cassidy, was employed by Nottingham Castle Museum to research and write a catalogue of the foreign oil paintings in their collection. The catalogue never materialised, but drafts and notes relating to Cassidy's research can be found in the Artist Files and in the Archive at the museum. All references to Cassidy relate to these documents. This painting was on display and so could not be examined on the reverse. Glazing also hindered study of the front. This painting is signed and dated and this inscription is well documented, for example in the Jubilee catalogue of 1928 as "Klaes Molenaer 1665". However, it is now almost invisible. Cassidy's transcription c.1984 found: "CLAES MOLENAER 16". Whilst the date of 1665 is likely to be correct, Cassidy's transcription of the spelling of the name is probably more reliable than the spelling used in older documentation. NCM 1904-120 was cleaned, re-touched and revarnished in 1983 by Jesse Bruton Picture Restoration, Wolverhampton. The canvas was found to have been re-lined and there was some worm damage on the reverse in the stretcher and the pegs. Virag 15/12/2004, Collection of Richard Godson Millns